The post-00s "pain culture" is popular: while "eating grain" and "pain", the price is increased by thousands of places to buy

Launched by Tencent Technology, the "Fresh Plan" column excavates the freshest products, explores the most in-depth lifestyles of the younger generation, and experiences the Aha moment in the wave of wisdom.

Highlights:

• 1

  Not long ago, a note of "breaking up the two-dimensional toilet" appeared on a social software hot list, according to the black language in the circle, this is called "painful toilet". "Pain culture" has been popular for a long time with the two-dimensional trend, which refers to the use of favorite anime peripherals to decorate, usually huge and exaggerated.

• 2

  The main force of pain culture comes from the "Valley Circle", that is, those groups who are keen to buy anime peripherals. Millet is the transliteration of goods, and buying goods is commonly known as "eating grain". "Eating grain" is not only to please yourself, the core appeal of pain culture is to "sunshine", and even wear your favorite anime characters on your body to "show the world".

• 3

  On social media, "eating grain-posting orders-recording and unpacking-buying and storage-patting grain-piercing bags-setting pain tables and pain rooms" has formed a link cycle, which is difficult for every grain eater not to get involved, and at the same time, it has also turned eating grain into a prosperous consumption landscape of "visual kei".

• 4

  In the valley circle, "eating plural" is a common purchase model, buying N pieces of the same product. This model directly raises the unit price and repurchase rate, and pulls up the growth curve. There is a view that the cold wind of "consumption downgrade" has not blown to the second dimension. The size of the consumer group, the activity of transactions, and the growth force all show that this market still has a lot to offer.

In recent years, office workers have placed blind box dolls and engaged in "workstation decoration", which has long been left over from the two-dimensional play.

Not long ago, a note of "breaking the two-dimensional toilet" appeared on a social software hot list, and the blogger pasted the game character's badge 360° around the vanity mirror, put the paper towel holder on the stand, and the folder as the background wall. This "mom sees the beating" toilet has attracted hundreds of thousands of netizens to watch and tens of thousands of likes, and there are thousands of collections that imply that a group of people "smell like".

According to the black language in the circle, this is called "painful toilet", which is actually to use anime peripherals to beautify and decorate the toilet. In fact, "pain culture" has been popular for a long time with the two-dimensional trend, which refers to the use of favorite anime peripherals to decorate, usually huge and exaggerated. For example, "Pain Car" is to spray anime patterns onto the car.

However, in China, the "pain culture" has diluted the strong otaku flavor in the stereotype, and has paid more and more attention to aesthetics and visual presentation, moving towards daily and popular items: pain bags, pain nails, pain clothes, pain pencil cases, pain walls, "everything can be painful", and it has also become a group of people's identity medals.

Cheap nylon bags stuffed with "bar chirping" (badges) have become "the first light luxury bag for young people", and the market price of such a "pain bag" is easily thousands. What's even more extravagant is the "Pain Room", which spreads the entire room around the anime, and every inch of the area exudes the taste of a wealthy family that is close to six figures. There is even a joke in the market, "When the financial crisis comes, there will be two yuan to carry".

(Pain bag, pain room)

"Everything hurts", a kind of "real-life version of the Meitu App"?

Open social media, badges, stands, soft plush, and pendants are all over the desk, which has long been the daily style of college student dormitories. Hole board + elevated + table mat supports the dream of "20-year-old with a two-square-meter theme park".

From the outside of the circle, these two-dimensional faces are like copy and paste, precisely arranged, rich, full and lively. In the eyes of a two-dimensional person, the pain table is related to a full and maximal aesthetics, and the more numerous the millet, the more real the sense of companionship.

The main force of pain culture comes from the "Valley Circle", that is, those groups who are keen to buy anime peripherals. Millet is the transliteration of goods, and buying goods is commonly known as "eating grain".

("Small appetite" grain eaters are also "painful")

Wu Weicheng, the founder of iMan, pointed out a market trend to the "Play Generation", young people are keen to eat grain, in addition to collecting attributes, they are also paying more and more attention to functionality, and penetrating into the home furnishing field.

There is a game in the circle called "Array", which refers to spreading the collected millet to every corner of the house, which is very visually stunning. Although "setting up a formation" is often a ritualistic way to celebrate the birthday of the characters, the trend of using millet to decorate and beautify the space is becoming more and more obvious. Pain cabinets, pain walls, pain houses, and even pain toilets, the ultimate scene sinks.

(It is said that the ceiling of the "array" is worth millions)

For the post-00s who have no pressure in life, the "pain culture" and "pain" are more freewheeling, and the pursuit is "love everywhere you look".

Those office workers who change their workstations are for self-pleasure and become unified in small buildings alone, while the grain eaters who are engaged in pain culture have more of a desire to share in addition to pleasing themselves, a kind of social currency attribute.

The so-called "buying grain without drying is equal to buying for nothing", these days, eating grain is not only to please yourself, the core appeal of pain culture is to "dry", and even wear your favorite anime characters on your body to "show the world".

On a community platform, the elderly machine has been played as a fashion item, and the war-damaged version of the iPhone 4 and the flip phone with the custom film have become a "pain machine", a "beautiful waste" that girls can't put down.

The "pain bag" that can go out on the street OOTD concave shape is more mainstream, with more than 800 million views on a short video platform. Decorative aesthetics and light trend have promoted the "pain culture" from a niche to a group of popularity.

A qualified pain bag must have a large skylight, which can fully display the self-propulsion and give enough creative space. Different millets and elements are stacked on top of each other, dots, lines, and surfaces are arranged, and the color system is matched, and the pain bag template of this class of students is comparable to the PPT template of the workers. In order to tie a more beautiful pain bag, some people can take more than a dozen pain bags a year. Lin Lin finally calculated, the cost of "pain bag" can top a Chanel.

The more exaggerated gameplay is to "create a landscape" in the bag, and even tie a giant shield with a banner width of 1 meter, and the return rate is 100% on the street, and the "bag" is not amazing.

On a video platform on the main position of ACG, "Pain Dad" has become a confusing award for Chinese pain culture, with more than 2 million onlookers and more than 200,000 likes. In the video, the father holds a serious line around the anime and introduces the anime characters that his daughter is passionate about. Subsequently, "Pain Teacher", "Pain Sister" and "Pain Brother" were also derived.

The culture of pain is becoming more and more "happy alone is better than happy together", and "pain" is later, it is no longer important what the pain is, and the pain point is the ultimate personal expression and emotional identity.

The valley circle, consumption downgrade are all around

But if you want to squeeze into the trend of pain culture, the premise is to "eat grain" and have a sufficient "material library".

In the valley circle, "eating plural" is a common purchase model, buying N pieces of the same product. Some people in the valley circle pointed out that "buying plurality, repeatedly playing and looking at it, and cherishing such behaviors are considered to be buying grain", according to her consumption Xi, "buying one piece is considered a guarantee, and I especially like to buy plural if the price is reasonable."

This model directly raises the unit price and repurchase rate, and pulls up the growth curve. This year's Double 11, the retail stores around games and animations supported half of the trendy toy hot list, and some brands reached 50 million sales in the first battle.

A number of animation retail brands have doubled their revenue this year. A two-dimensional retail store in Nanchang has a single-store repurchase rate of 73%.

It is understood that the post-00 generation, which accounts for the largest proportion of consumer groups, spends thousands in the quarter, and office workers with relatively financial ability even burn more than 10,000 per month.

The valley circle is so counterintuitive!

Although the college students shouted "reverse consumption" and practiced "special forces tourism" and "eating foolish food", their bodies were very honest - the number of people who ate grain not only did not decrease, but increased; the unit price of eating grain was not high, but they couldn't resist the frequent chopping of hands.

In this year's Spring Festival and summer holidays, animation stores in Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Beijing are crowded with groups of young people who come to visit the stores. Among them, millet propped up the "cash cow" of the store. Guangzhou Yingman Bookstore revealed that product sales have doubled for three consecutive quarters, and the total annual sales of goods have exceeded one million.

Limited to buy, market vendors to buy, co-branded to buy, each represents scarcity and collection value. There are even times when "buy early and earn early", "if you don't buy today, you will be 800 tomorrow". For example, there is a game anniversary limited official sale price of 100 yuan, and it becomes out of print after a year, and someone increases the price by 1,000 yuan to buy it. This fluctuation in premiums has increased the incentive to buy.

The "valley market" is comparable to the "stock market". The popular characters, good-looking patterns and product craftsmanship in those popular works are likely to be potential "excellent stocks", because the more people like it, the more people want to buy the collection, and the more they have circulation value.

Even, eating grain has its own psychometric weights. Some grain circle lovers pointed out that when they were most obsessed, buying anything could be converted into the price of millet in the skull, "a pot of strawberries is equal to a Ma Tiekou badge, and two cups of milk tea are equal to an acrylic stand".

On social media, "eating grain-posting orders-recording and unpacking-buying and storage-patting grain-piercing bags-setting pain tables and pain rooms" has formed a link cycle, which is difficult for every grain eater not to get involved, and at the same time, it has also turned eating grain into a prosperous consumption landscape of "visual kei".

One view is that millet itself is a "cheap happiness", locking in the low price band, and "buying a lot of cheap small things" is itself a marker under the downgrade of consumption.

There is also a view that the cold wind of "consumption downgrade" has not blown to the second dimension. The size of the consumer group, the activity of transactions, and the growth force all show that this market still has a lot to offer.

Shen Hao, the founder of Marchbeast, pointed out that the "consumption downgrade" is less obvious in the two-dimensional category, but the commodity structure has changed, and the main force of hot sales has shifted from animation character figures to light peripherals with low unit price and high transaction numbers, such as badges, stands, laser tickets, etc., which are popular in the market.

In fact, the core buyers of figurine-shaped statues are men, while the main consumers of two-dimensional products such as badges and standing cards are women. As a result, there are also market observations that consumption power is returning to the hands of women, supporting this wave of enthusiasm.

For example, the popular B game "Love of Light and Night" by female players, the badge alone sold hundreds of thousands of pieces, refreshing the sales "ceiling". The person in charge of product development pointed out that the female group is keen to eat grain, which stems from whether the product can cause emotional resonance, which can be the emotion of the character's success in chasing his dreams, the longing for a beautiful relationship, or the satisfaction of his own fantasies.

"The essence of ACG consumption is the recognition of cultural products, which reflects emotional consumption and pays for happiness", Zhao Lei, the founder of Manku, said that ACG consumers are more loyal and more willing to pay a premium for products with cultural and emotional value.

In any case, the strong willingness to pay and consumption power are driving the evolution and upgrading of the consumer side.

Offline stores are blooming everywhere, all striving for a "happy hometown"

The most explosive thing this year is that Shanghai Bailian ZX Creative Fun Field has created "a whole genuine IP building", from the 1st floor to the 6th floor, all the main two-dimensional products, from games to animation, from figure models to light peripherals all-inclusive. Its agglomeration effect directly increased the two-dimensional concentration and young passenger flow of the entire Nanjing East Road.

Every weekend, there are two-dimensional team building, the game "Infinite Lost", the two-dimensional game "Idol Dream Festival", and the theme activities are one after another. There are even some students in the Yangtze River Delta region who take the high-speed rail to play, "Hangzhou to Shanghai by high-speed rail, 150 yuan round trip, and it is very atmospheric to come with friends", dress up as a favorite character, hold the character doll, brush the limit with friends, eat and drink in the theme restaurant by the way, and achieve a whole day of happiness.

The direct return of "traffic" and "sales" has made many domestic and foreign copyright owners, game manufacturers, and brands increase their layout.

Japanese toy giant Bandai's Bandai soul store and capsule specialty store are crowded into major business districts across the country. By the end of this year, the number of offline stores will increase to 9 in March. Aiman's pace is even faster, opening more than 60 new stores this year, and it is expected to exceed 100 by the end of this year. Manku has built a 450-square-meter flagship store in Chengdu, with a super store to support the holding of events and competitions.

All kinds of retail stores, theme stores, and co-branded stores are blooming everywhere, not counting self-employed millet shops, trendy toy collection stores, and gift grocery stores.

Even new consumer brands are rushing to be the "atmosphere group". Tea and coffee brands have changed their clothes one after another, with an average of one co-branded every 3 days, buying milk tea and sending sticker pendants, which always attracts young people to queue up to check in.

Nikoand, a daily grocery brand, has recently launched EVA and Jujutsu Huizhan collaborations in China to grab the flow of fans around the area, and some people queue up for two hours to scan goods for five minutes, just for small items such as badges, mouse pads, and refrigerator magnets. This momentum is not inferior to the aunt who snapped up the Uniqlo KAWS co-branded T-shirt. It's just that this time it's a "two-dimensional".

Intensive output, fresh limited, and affordable happiness at your fingertips have prospered the consumption map of the valley circle.

In the face of young people who are keen on eating grain, brand owners are also focusing on providing more diversified experiences, focusing on "two-dimensional to three-dimensional" to dig deep and stimulate potential demand.

Not long ago, Guoman's "Heavenly Official Blessing" opened a theme restaurant in Jing'an Joy City, each dish is closely related to the theme of the anime story, and the most representative "Xianle Palace" dessert is shaped like a carved palace. Pull three or five friends to check in and take pictures, eat delicious food, and buy peripherals by the way to become more logical.

In December alone, there were as many as 15 IP-themed restaurants in mainstream shopping malls in Shanghai. Among them, there are many "Spell Return", "Writer's Wild Dog", "Inhuman", "Magic Card Girl Sakura", "Onmyoji", "Love of Light and Night", "Sanrio", "Luo Xiaohei", etc., all of which are popular anime and game IPs. It is understood that IPSTAR currently has 17 stores across the country, running 10 themes at the same time, constantly renovating patterns to meet the preferences of interest groups.

According to the "2023 China New Consumption Trends White Paper", in the past three years (2020-2022), the post-00s aged 18-22 have increased their per capita unit value by 80% on Taobao and Tmall, surpassing other generations. The post-700s regard hobby consumption as a "daily life", which accounts for a larger proportion of interest expenditure than the post-90s, and they are more willing to pay for their interests. This potential is difficult for "white-collar workers with a monthly salary of tens of thousands" to achieve.

According to iResearch's report, the domestic animation market will enter the "100 billion mark" in 2020, with an annual growth rate of 32.7%, and it is estimated that the pan-two-dimensional group will reach 500 million in 2023. Judging from the average annual consumption amount, the consumption of ACG users in animation is about 1,500 yuan, most of which is spent on peripheral consumption.

Young people are keen to eat grain and like to decorate their lives with millet, which also lights up the offline consumption scene. Creating a "happy hometown" for the post-00s generation is becoming a more imaginative business.